The universities gather these data for their Title IX reports, therefore I am almost positive they reflect the budgets for entire athletic departments, not just football. But football being football you can expect most of the swings were football. Totals from those four years are what is presented and sorted by below.

The ticket sales thing is going to be a bit janky since I don't know where the donations to get tickets count. Minus Penn State and Northwestern, but including Nebraska, the Big Ten is the only conference averaging over $25k/year per school.

Student Fees:

#

University

Conf

Student Fees '08-'11

1

Central Florida

C-USA

$66,507,930

2

Akron

MAC

$62,782,188

3

Florida International

Sun Belt

$60,801,888

4

Miami (NNTM)

MAC

$54,917,961

5

South Florida

Big East

$52,288,800

6

Virginia

ACC

$48,126,961

7

Kent State

MAC

$42,176,390

8

East Carolina

C-USA

$41,732,142

9

Toledo

MAC

$38,813,408

10

Bowling Green

MAC

$38,370,444

With the exception of Virginia, these schools are drawing from the students way more than they can get from contributions.

University Subsidies:

#

University

Conf

University subsidy '08-'11

1

Rutgers

Big East

$70,998,359

2

Central Michigan

MAC

$62,051,172

3

Houston

C-USA

$56,954,372

4

Western Michigan

MAC

$55,279,664

5

Eastern Michigan

MAC

$54,250,931

Two schools trying to build a case to be in BCS conferences, and the directional Michigan schools. When you vote for David Brandon, you vote to end this shameless expenditure on MAC-letics. #BrandonforMichigan2014

More after the jump.

$cratch from Playing in Away Games:

#

University

Conf

$ from playing in away games '08-'11

1

Ohio State

Big Ten

$14,979,075

2

Army

Independent

$13,905,320

3

UCLA

Pac12

$10,821,525

4

Louisiana-Monroe

Sun Belt

$10,395,500

5

Arkansas State

Sun Belt

$8,761,400

6

Troy

Sun Belt

$8,562,000

7

Oregon State

Pac12

$8,253,395

8

Florida International

Sun Belt

$7,704,500

9

North Carolina

ACC

$7,377,017

10

Washington State

Pac12

$7,213,733

...

...

...

...

90

Michigan

Big Ten

$958,257

That's the Ohio the State, not OHIO. Only 99 teams reported so Michigan is near the end. The rest of the bottom 10 after us goes Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, A&M, Arkansas, Tennessee, Auburn, and Bama. Non-conference road games for Ohio State in that time: USC and Miami (YTM). For UCLA: BYU, Tennessee, Kansas State, Texas, and Houston. For Michigan: Notre Dame twice. Army and the Sun Belt teams whored themselves around the country in one-offs. I don't get why Ohio State is up there.

Payments to Coaches & Staff from a 3rd Party:

#

University

Conf

4-year

1

South Carolina

SEC

$11,503,020

2

Mississippi State

SEC

$8,328,661

3

Mississippi

SEC

$8,061,707

4

Alabama

SEC

$6,663,374

5

Rutgers

Big East

$5,986,631

6

Georgia

SEC

$5,292,907

7

Arkansas

SEC

$3,877,233

8

Louisiana State

SEC

$3,542,056

This I believe. S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C! Schiano Stay! S-E-C!

(Michigan pays none).

Money from Conference (read: TV deal):

#

University

Conf

NCAA, conferences

1

Indiana

Big Ten

$97,560,466

2

Michigan State

Big Ten

$90,524,327

3

Iowa

Big Ten

$89,396,081

4

Illinois

Big Ten

$88,494,971

5

Purdue

Big Ten

$87,677,914

6

Wisconsin

Big Ten

$87,317,931

7

Michigan

Big Ten

$84,633,227

8

Minnesota

Big Ten

$83,365,973

9

Florida

SEC

$71,189,237

10

Kentucky

SEC

$68,921,867

11

Arkansas

SEC

$68,717,859

12

Louisiana State

SEC

$68,092,454

13

Auburn

SEC

$66,301,139

14

Georgia

SEC

$66,033,303

15

South Carolina

SEC

$64,259,921

16

Mississippi

SEC

$63,945,414

17

Ohio State

Big Ten

$62,639,774

18

Mississippi State

SEC

$62,590,190

19

Tennessee

SEC

$60,140,691

20

Oklahoma

Big XII

$59,230,874

That's where Ohio State's money went. I think they counted the payments from their Big Ten home games.

Contributions & Donations:

#

University

Conf

2011

4-Year

1

Florida

SEC

$41,995,792

$164,705,155

2

Oklahoma State

Big XII

$26,978,331

$163,050,172

3

Texas

Big XII

$37,337,126

$146,796,209

4

Oregon

Pac12

$33,214,707

$143,280,885

5

Auburn

SEC

$32,849,477

$129,559,076

6

Louisiana State

SEC

$31,927,029

$124,608,744

7

Alabama

SEC

$30,082,101

$123,541,957

8

Georgia

SEC

$28,639,938

$114,824,505

9

Virginia

ACC

$34,503,066

$108,965,772

10

Tennessee

SEC

$27,936,952

$105,957,898

11

Texas A&M

Big XII

$18,059,015

$99,857,296

12

Ohio State

Big Ten

$17,636,938

$99,841,831

13

Kansas

Big XII

$18,770,322

$99,385,281

14

Iowa

Big Ten

$26,622,140

$96,352,289

15

Florida State

ACC

$19,302,120

$93,310,856

16

South Carolina

SEC

$23,987,283

$90,551,581

17

Oklahoma

Big XII

$28,671,113

$82,694,630

18

Michigan State

Big Ten

$18,025,593

$78,197,749

19

Texas Tech

Big XII

$18,704,918

$76,975,859

20

Michigan

Big Ten

$27,961,623

$75,149,049

Frankly I expected Michigan to be at the top of this list. Maybe the down years suppressed this a bit but had we averaged the $28 million (which I believe includes things like the minimum donations to get your season tickets) we're still behind the SEC schools. Okie State and Oregon received major single donations from their sugar daddies, others are expanding stadiums. Kansas? Iowa? MSU? When Michigan can call a guy and say "look, we need $400k to send the band to Texas; you good for it?" on a whim?

Media Rights:

This isn't the games they're broadcasting, else it would be conference dollars.

#

University

Conf

Media rights

1

North Carolina

ACC

$42,810,783

2

Ohio State

Big Ten

$37,119,194

3

Alabama

SEC

$34,677,469

4

Kentucky

SEC

$30,727,702

5

Louisiana State

SEC

$27,948,121

...

...

...

...

40

Michigan

Big Ten

$2,025,000

Mostly I just posted it in hopes someone out there can explain this one.

Royalties:

#

University

Conf

Licensing, royalties, ads, sponsorships

1

Texas

Big XII

$79,709,831

2

Michigan

Big Ten

$65,510,076

3

Florida State

ACC

$47,496,494

4

Oklahoma

Big XII

$43,994,606

5

Nebraska

Big Ten

$40,451,305

6

Connecticut

Big East

$39,729,797

7

Texas A&M

Big XII

$38,893,297

8

Ohio State

Big Ten

$37,947,229

9

Florida

SEC

$37,434,725

10

UCLA

Pac12

$35,052,273

The Adidas deal, Europeans' weird fetish for Michigan apparel, set against Texas owning the most obnoxious state in the union and Walmart shoppers' weird fetish for Florida State apparel. UConn got cool among northeast hipster communities for a time in 2009 as an accessory to Snooki Halloween costumes. I am making this up.

Profit and Loss Statement, a Top 25:

Sorted by gross.

#

University

Conf

Revenues

Expenses

Profit (4-yr)

1

Texas

Big XII

$552,598,799

$502,771,142

$49,827,657

2

Alabama

SEC

$502,580,451

$450,769,374

$51,811,077

3

Ohio State

Big Ten

$490,438,600

$479,151,079

$11,287,521

4

Florida

SEC

$444,040,798

$413,840,568

$30,200,230

5

Tennessee

SEC

$436,061,102

$429,821,124

$6,239,978

6

Michigan

Big Ten

$423,833,218

$371,016,549

$52,816,669

7

Penn State

Big Ten

$410,281,226

$320,534,287

$89,746,939

8

LSU

SEC

$404,186,985

$369,726,214

$34,460,771

9

Wisconsin

Big Ten

$379,251,362

$370,533,869

$8,717,493

10

Auburn

SEC

$372,907,236

$346,728,229

$26,179,007

11

Oklahoma

Big XII

$361,436,974

$340,393,000

$21,043,974

12

Texas A&M

Big XII

$360,668,222

$309,491,231

$51,176,991

13

Georgia

SEC

$351,139,192

$308,577,380

$42,561,812

14

Notre Dame

Independent

$349,835,780

$276,109,188

$73,726,592

15

Okie State

Big XII

$343,821,532

$316,468,972

$27,352,560

16

Iowa

Big Ten

$343,575,662

$305,215,187

$38,360,475

17

Mich State

Big Ten

$328,791,110

$327,015,503

$1,775,607

18

Oregon

Pac12

$323,887,328

$270,639,043

$53,248,285

19

Stanford

Pac12

$314,202,587

$312,668,353

$1,534,234

20

Kentucky

SEC

$308,364,164

$301,551,655

$6,812,509

21

USC

Pac12

$308,017,139

$308,017,139

$0

22

Nebraska

Big Ten

$307,537,756

$299,179,167

$8,358,589

23

S Carolina

SEC

$302,421,479

$296,704,309

$5,717,170

24

Arkansas

SEC

$301,851,426

$280,437,125

$21,414,301

25

Florida State

ACC

$300,853,875

$306,270,241

($5,416,366)

Everybody reported this at least so I can give you the conference averages over the same four-year period:

Conf

Revenues

Expenses

Profit

Big Ten

$331,938,422

$309,921,928

$22,016,494

SEC

$329,625,421

$308,939,850

$20,685,572

Big XII

$299,825,261

$276,917,712

$22,907,550

ACC

$245,736,878

$240,195,775

$5,541,103

Pac12

$240,005,201

$233,704,294

$6,300,907

Big East

$209,392,616

$206,716,254

$2,676,362

Independent

$183,765,046

$156,322,503

$27,442,543

MWC

$144,562,111

$143,661,416

$900,695

C-USA

$116,679,131

$115,628,339

$1,050,792

WAC

$91,400,988

$91,793,266

$(392,279)

MAC

$91,288,773

$89,333,984

$1,954,789

Sun Belt

$62,916,666

$65,759,477

$(2,842,811)

Notre Dame is still the top earner in Indiana. Though not by much.

Pieces of expenditure bullets.

Stanford, Michigan, and Notre Dame pay out the most in tuition aid, because our schools are the most expensive. The service academies pay nothing; the three non-Baton Rouge schools in Louisiana are bunched at the bottom, putting about $2 to $3 million per year back into the school to cover financial aid.

OSU, Indiana, UCLA and Michigan State paid the most to visiting teams (we were 33rd).

In total coaches salaries, M is 7th behind Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Alabama, with LSU right behind. Football, man.

Michigan was 8th in recruiting budget, with Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and the big SEC schools on top. We were 6th in team travel, with Wisconsin oddly on top.

Texas spent $77 million, more than the next highest two combined, on "Game day expenses." Of the few stadiums on that list I've been to I think we're looking at the largest tailgates. Michigan is 25th, mostly post-MSU pumpkin cleanup.

Comment viewing options

One thing re: high travel costs - Wisco has been to Pasedena a few times. And IIRC they also play at UNLV every so often to appease a very big donor, so that might have something to do with their travel costs.

Man, I wish you'd come up with a different title for this than "Michigan Museday." I realize you're desperately trying to follow in Brian's "Unverified Voracity" footsteps, but the title is just horrific. I enjoy reading this every Monday, but cringe every week when I read the title again.

i suppose this has to do with things like radio broadcasting fees, stadium naming rights, coach's show sponsorships, advertising in programs and in the stadium, fees to allow something be "the official something of something." i can surmise that the UNC, UK and OSU stuff might have something to do with those programs also having wildly successful basketball programs. i am not sure how 'bama would work into that.

after firing Craig James into the sun is make a rule that every school that didn't break even over a five year period would either have to show that thet were close to being able to do that or go down to FCS. The obscene student fees some schools are forced to pay is despicable.

Especially since it seems like these schools could simply eliminate thier football team and invest heavily in Basketball, where it is much easier to become good. Take BGSU, my hometown team-- they already have a pretty nice new gym. Add a sweet training facility, pay for better coaching, and rebrand away from orange and brown (or at least go back to their 1960's style unis) and I garuntee that they would be much more efficient in getting BGSU on TV than they ever would having a terrible football team.

For powerhouses, yes it helps a lot. Private schools like University of Miami and Notre Dame and USC find it crucial. Big state universities use it to substantially increase national prestige and to foster hometown loyalties that translate into capturing a greater share of the in-state intellectual pool. The football program is the "front porch" of American universities. They establish the institutions as brands long before kids start looking at the educational side. I think if you polled the Michigan students and alumni on this board on why we chose to go to Michigan, our fandom for Michigan football as children admittedly played a large role.

My own applied-to list coming out of high school was Columbia, Princeton, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan State (accepted to the last 4, got as far as Phase 2 at NWern)-- five Big Ten schools and two of the oldest football programs in the country. Late in the game a good friend said she was looking at Washington University in St. Louis and I quickly applied there too, but before that I didn't know it even existed.

For schools which are essentially solvent, that makses sense. But you can't tell me that BGSU or Central Florida wouldn't benefit more by simply putting up giant billboards in the fifty biggest cities or by simply buying a commercial spot. As a marketing tool, I just don't understand how its worth 10 million dollars in student fees to have an athletic program. Its funny-- in High School, I didn't know washington (Stl), either. Now? Grad school possibility.

For example, at Virginia, all students can go to all sporting events for free. So for the student fee number to be comparable, all schools would have to include their student ticket revenue. It's still unfair to basically force your student body to pay for athletic tickets, but every athletic department is getting money from students in some form.

I think a lot of it has to do with how the schools fill out and categorize stuff. We now do our tv show through the marketing deal we have with IMG. Before, when it was individually produced Michigan Replay it was probably outside revenue. Now that it's done "in-house" things like that fall under the checks IMG write us, rather than outside media.

Likewise, I think not too long ago Michigan changed how coaches got paid outside of their salary. Hoke's base salary is $300k, but he gets all the rest of it from Adidas, tv show, etc.

I think those used to be direct payments to the coach, but now for "propriety and appearance" I think those are paid to the University, the the U pays the coaches. It's defacto the same thing but makes them feel better about it. Like there's oversight or something. Where as at a lot of schools it's probably still the other way, so it might look like more is coming from the outside than at Michigan. (And, of course, I'm sure a coaching show in Alabama goes for more than in Michigan).

Donation-wise, if anything, it's probably up in this era of forced donations. Michigan Athletic donors have been historically and notoriously cheap. We've ALWAYS ranked way behind other schools with big time programs. I bet if it was tracked, we've probably moved up the list. I'm sure part of it is we have big time donors who probably give a bigger percentage to the school than the AD, unlike a lot of lesser schools, but even so there's a reason it takes so long to get some of these things built...it takes forever to pull together enough donors. Bo had a long haul getting the building that would be named after him built. Martin did different sections and sports one at a time because there wasn't enough donor money to do all at once. We demand a lot, but haven't historically wanted to pay for it.

Weirdly, Navy didn't report what Air Force and Army did. Ticket sales, student fees, contributions and donations, payments to coaches from 3rd parties, NCAA and conference payments, money from away games, media rights, royalties, payments to visiting teams, coaches' salaries, recruiting, team travel, game day expenses, fund raising/marketing expenses, and medical insurance were all itemized by Air Force and Army, but not reported by Navy. I don't think this is DoD classification or privacy. I think Navy asked what ND reported and reported that, and nobody FOIAed them because they could probably level ESPN headquarters with the U.S.S. Constitution, let alone the Nimitz. One of the most important rules you learn in Journalism school: never fuck with anyone who owns a carrier group.